Guest Link: “Much To Do About Nothing”

For my post today, I would like to link you to another SL blogger, Daxiong Ling. He has some interesting things to say about how we relate to our Real Lives.

Addiction? Or Not?

It was bound to happen sooner or later. I was surfing the many websites that are dedicated to all things SL when I needed to check the time. I didn’t look at my wristwatch (I use it less and less these days), I didn’t look at my cell phone (lying right next to the keyboard), nor did I look at my PC’s clock (it’s been off by 30 seconds or more for some time). No, I glanced to the upper right corner of the screen to look at the grid clock. After all, it’s always accurate. (I guess it isn’t maintained by the Lindens.)

But the grid clock wasn’t there. Why? Because I wasn’t logged in to Second Life, that’s why!! Since I was looking specifically at SL-related websites, I just assumed that I was in world.

Now, if had been anywhere else on the web, this wouldn’t have happened. I’m quite certain of that. Although I’m as guilty as anyone of being completed immersed in what I’m doing when I’m online, I don’t usually think in terms of SL unless I’m there. Or so I thought. But the websites that are devoted to it have so much that puts me in mind of my experiences in world, that it’s easy to assume I’m there when I’m not.

Part of the reason for this is that I’ve developed the habit of surfing the web or checking email when I’m in world, especially when I’m at home by myself. (I maintain two residences in Second Life, an apartment that I rent, and a beach house that I own.) I used to do this more often, even when I was in a group of people, but I try no to do that anymore. People, especially friends, don’t like it when you aren’t paying attention to them, especially when they’re talking directly to you. I can’t say that I blame them, of course.

But I also think that, much to my delight/chagrin, I really have become addicted to Second Life. I mean, look at the way I casually mentioned in the preceding paragraph that I not only live in SL, but that I have two homes! I didn’t realize how naturally I said that until I proofread a little bit. Can’t you see someone who isn’t familiar with MMORPGs looking at that sentence and saying “Huh?!” (And for you veterans, how many of you read it without so much as a second glance?) Isn’t that part of addiction, when something which is in your experience is so natural to you, that you don’t even think of it as weird, while people who don’t have the same experience think you’re nuts?

Or is that something else entirely? Could it be that we’re so immersed in the culture that Second Life is second nature? And someone who isn’t familiar with your culture is, for want of a better word, a foreigner? Could it be that what we’re really talking about here is culture shock?

Just some musings before I go off and do RL stuff. which I’d better go and do now. After all, that’s why i looked at the clock in the first place! 🙂

Happy New Year!

I wish all my friends in Second Life, and also you, dear Reader, a happy and prosperous New Year.  May all your adventuring be guilt-free, safe, and fun!